Summary Box: Ex-UK finance chief slams Goodwin row

TARNISHED: The man who led the British government's bailout of Royal Bank of Scotland, former Treasury chief Alistair Darling, said Wednesday that the decision to strip the bank's former chief executive of his knighthood was distasteful.

KNIGHT NO MORE: The government's Honors Forfeiture Committee has decided to annul the title awarded to Fred Goodwin, who pursued the takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro that led RBS to the brink of collapse in 2008.

HISTORY: The government invested 45 billion pounds ($71 billion) in rescuing RBS, and now holds an 82 percent stake in its shares.